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Siege of Romorantin (1356)
The Siege of Romorantin (31 August–3 September) occurred when an English, Welsh, Breton and Gascon army under the command of Edward, the Black Prince, successfully besieged the French garrison of Romorantin. It was an important engagement, where cannons are mentioned begin used during the siege, prior to the Battle of Poitiers, part of the Hundred Years' War.

prelude
Meanwhile Amaury IV de Craon, Jean I Le Meingre, the Hermite de Chaumont and their 300 or so ‘lances’ (men-at-arms plus retainers) had been closely observing the invaders for six days before they found an opportunity to engage their vanguard. Froissart maintained that this was because the English planned their marches and camps with such skill. However, the small French force believed they had a chance some way upriver from Romorantin. There they ambushed Bartholomew de Burghersh, Edward Despencer and Lord Essex. Froissart once again provides a vivid description: Some troops were ordered off at once towards Romorantin, who, hearing that the English were to pass that way, lay quietly in ambush at a short distance from the town to surprise them. After a time the English came up and were suffered by the French to pass the defile without molestation, but the moment they were clear of it the French mounted their horse, and at full speed rode forward to overtake them. The English, hearing the sound of horses’ feet, turned, and finding it was the enemy, immediately halted to wait for them, and the French advanced at the gallop, with their lances in their rests. So great, indeed, was their speed, that as soon as they came up the English opened their ranks, and the French were carried through on their horses without much damage. The English troops then closed, and attacked the French rear. A sharp engagement ensued, many knights and squires were unhorsed on both sides, and many killed.15 When the rest of the English vanguard arrived the French retreated, half of them escaping to the castle of Romorantin.

Siege
The Prince’s decision to attack Romorantin is normally seen as a mistake because he knew that the French King was marching against him with a substantial army. Delaying the Black Prince may, of course, have been the intention of the handful of French troops who now defied him and the resulting siege lasted five days before the castle was forced to surrender. Worse still, English supplies were seriously depleted by this siege. The assault on Romorantin castle was described by both Froissart and Geoffrey le Baker. According to Froissart: On the next morning all the men-at-arms and archers prepared for battle, and each reporting to his own livery troop they made a sudden assault on the castle of Romorantin. The attack was fierce and heavy; the [English] archers who had been posted on the counterscarp sent such a continuous rain of arrows that scarcely anyone dared to show himself on the battlements. Some entered into the water up to their necks and came to the walls. Others took to the moat, floating on gates and wattles, with pikes and pickaxes, bows and arrows in their hands, to hew and pick at the base of the walls. Up above them the Seigneur de Craon, Boucicault and the Hermite de Chaumont were eagerly carrying out the task of defence, throwing down rocks and stones and pots full of quicklime. The Captal de Buch and his Gascons were involved in this attack, a squire named Raymond de Zedulach being killed. Next day the attack was resumed even more fiercely and again one of the most senior casualties on the English side was a Gascon, the brother of the Lord d’Albret. The Prince now declared openly that he would not move on until Romorantin fell. Le Baker described how the keep was finally taken: The prince gave orders that stone-throwing machines and tortoises for protection for the miners should be built. The machines, manned by specially trained troops, destroyed the roof of the tower [the central keep of the castle] and the battlements with round stones. They also set fire to the [props supporting the] tunnel which the miners had dug and which reached to the foundations of the castle.16 According to Froissart the roof of the tower was also set on fire, perhaps by cannon though this is by no means clear. After taking Romorantin, the Black Prince continued west along the Cher, apparently still hoping to join forces with the Duke of Lancaster. He made camp at Montlouis near Tours while sending out raiders and scouts. Tours itself was under the nominal command of two of the French King’s sons, the Counts of Poitiers and Anjou, supported by the Marshal Clermont. Le Baker reported that heavy rain storms frustrated an English assault and: Thanks to St Martin, the patron saint of Tours, its enemies were unable to burn the town. After four days waiting for Lancaster it became obvious that the Black Prince must retreat. As he stated in a letter addressed to the citizens of London after the campaign was over: Upon our departure from thence, we took the road so as to pass certain dangers by water, and with the intention of meeting with our most dear cousin, the Duke of Lancaster, of whom we had certain news that he would make haste to draw towards us. 17 Though the Duke of Lancaster’s army could not cross the Loire, the two commanders were clearly in contact via messengers.

Gascon campaign
The Gascon campaign of 1294 to 1303 was a military conflict between English and French forces over the Duchy of Aquitaine, including the Duchy of Gascony. The Duchy of Aquitaine was held in fief by King Edward I of England as a vassal of King Philip IV of France. Starting with a fishing fleet dispute and then naval warfare, the conflict escalated to open warfare between the two countries. In spite of a French military victory on the ground, the war ended when the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1303, which restored the status quo. The war was a premise to future tensions between the two nations culminating in the Hundred Years' War.

Background
The Duchy of Aquitaine was a personal possession of the King Edward I. Edward I had spent his youth in Gascony and also spent three years in Aquitaine between 1286 to 1289. The King of England held the duchy as a vassal of the King of France, since the Treaty of Paris in 1259. Aquitaine and Gascony represented an important source of income and wine for England. King Philip IV continued to strengthen his suzerainty over the feudal fiefs, regularly taking advantage of ability to allow Gascons to appeal English law at the French court.

In 1293, a fight between sailors off the Gascon coast, between Gascon and Norman fishing boats, degenerated into open naval war between the two navies of England and France. An Anglo-Gascon fleet attacked a French fleet off the Pointe Saint-Mathieu on 15 May, and then sacked the French port of La Rochelle. The Normans appealed to the King of France for assistance. Ongoing reprisals taken by French ships against the Gascons and English revenge attacks on French ships, led Philip IV to summon Edward I before his court. Edward I sent his younger brother Edmund of Lancaster and Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, to negotiate a truce with the French King.

John St John had been appointed as Edward I's lieutenant in Gascony and upon arrival in Gascony, St John set about strengthening and provisioning the English controlled fortified towns and castles, and providing adequate garrisons for them. A settlement was reached between Edward I and Philip IV, allowing the temporary French occupations of the English controlled fortified towns and castles. On 3 February 1294, orders were given by Edward I to allow the French to temporary take possession of the Gascon strongholds. Upon the French taking processions of the castles, the English sold off the provisions and stores that they had collected. Philip IV, however, then summoned Edward I on 21 April, to appear before the French court. Edward I was forfeited of Aquitaine, Gascony and other French possessions on 19 May, for failure to appear personally before the French court. A French army was then sent to occupy the confiscated territories. Edward I renounced his homage to Philip IV and began preparations for war.

English expedition of 1294-1295
The English were delayed in sending an army to Gascony, due to a revolt in Wales by Madog ap Llywelyn. The expedition was led by Edward's nephew John of Brittany and John St John. The English army was finally able to leave Portsmouth on 9 October 1294, raiding Pointe Saint-Mathieu and Île de Ré. The English fleet arrived off Aquitaine and went up the Garonne River and seized the town of Castillon on 27 October. Travelling up the Gironde estuary from the 28 October, the English captured the towns of Macau (31 October), Bourg (1 November) and Blaye. The fleet then sailed up the Garonne to Bordeaux, however was unable to capture the town after ten days of siege, before the fleet went up stream to Rions, which was captured, along with Podensac and Villeneuve.

St John left John of Brittany at Rions and travelled to Bayonne, and laid siege to the town. On 1 January 1295, the French garrison was driven into the castle by the citizens of Bayonne and the citizens opened the town gates to him. The castle surrendered on 9 January. After the successes of the English army, many Gascons joined the English army.

French expedition of 1295
Philip IV sent his brother Charles of Valois, the Marshal of France, Guy I of Clermont and the Constable of France, Raoul II of Clermont into Aquitaine and Gascony at the head of a large army that won back most of the English conquests in the Garonne valley. Both John of Brittany and St John defended Rions, but due to the fall of the neighbouring towns and discontent between the English troops, they abandoned Rions, which the French entered on 8 April. The English offensive was halted and the French army retook Podensac and then Saint-Sever in June 1295 after 13 weeks of siege. Saint-Sever was not long held by the French before being retaken by the English, under Hugh de Vere. Charles de Valois left command of the French army to Roger-Bernard III, Count of Foix. Only Bourg and Blaye remained in English hands in the north of the duchy and Bayonne and Saint-Sever in the south.

English and French expeditions of 1296-1297
An English relief force is mustered in England, however was delayed from sailing due to a revolt in Scotland in 1295, finally leaving on 4 January 1296 from Plymouth. The army was commanded by Edward I's brother Edmond of Lancaster and Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln. Messengers were sent to Brittany, requesting passage through Brittany and to gather provisions, however the messengers were hanged by the Bretons, and in revenge Edmund plundered Brittany on his way to Gascony. The English army arrived in Gascony in March 1296. Staying at Bourg and Blaye, the English army was joined by many Gascons, swelling Edmund's forces to more than two thousand men-at-arms. The English army advanced on 28 March to Bordeaux, and laid siege to the town. The towns of Langon and Saint-Macaire surrendered to Edmund's forces. With the news of an approaching French army under Robert of Artois, with difficulties in paying his troops, resulting in parts of the army disbanding, the siege of Bordeaux was ended and the English army retired to Bayonne. Edmond of Lancaster died at Bayonne on 5/6 June.

Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln was appointed as the commander of the English army with John St John continuing as Seneschal of Gascony. A siege of the towns of Bordeaux and Dax was undertaken, however after eleven weeks of siege the towns were not captured and the sieges were lifted. The English army while attempting to resupply the fortress of Bonnegarde, the army was ambushed by the French army on 2 February 1297. St John, leading a division was outnumbered by the attacking French forces, but Hnery de Lacy and the second division retreated from the battlefield. When the the Gascon contingent ran away St John was defeated and taken prisoner along with ten other knights. Henry de Lacy retreated to Bayonne, while Robert of Artois was ordered to travel to Flanders to assist with the English expedition to Flanders.

Bayonne continued to remain the centre of English power. Henry de Lacy carried out a raid towards Toulouse, which lasted till Michaelmas. De Lacy then went back to Bayonne till after Christmas, and about Easter 1298 returned to England.

Negotiations and peace treaty (1297-1303)
Edward I was faced with military failures in Gascony, Scotland and Flanders and together with internal disputes in England about the costly wars and that the English barons have little motivation for a war on the Continent, Edward I and sought a truce with Philip IV, through mediation via Pope Boniface VIII, which was signed on 9 October 1297. The truce is renewed several times during the negotiations until 1303. The truce arranges the marriages of Edward I and Marguerite of France, sister of Philip IV and between Edward I's son the prince Edward and Isabella, daughter of Philip IV. The marriage of Edward I and Marguerite occured in 1299, while the second occured in 1308. The Treaty of Paris was signed in 1303 which returned Aquitaine to Edward I, in exchange for homage, and ended of the Auld alliance between France and Scotland signed eight years earlier in 1295.

Aftermath
The recurring problems of the King of England doing homage for lands to the King France, added to issues of the succession to French crown, upon the failure of the Capetian line. King Edward III, the child of King Edward II and Isabella of France, claimed the crown of France of his grandfather Philip IV, as the only male descendant.. The outbreak of the Hundred Years' War in 1337 was a result of the tension between the two nations.

During this campaign, England was hampered by the problems of supply, financing, and recruitment of armies, which continued to be a problem during the Hundred Years' War.

Individuals

 * Robert Fitz Payne https://books.google.com.au/books?id=uioJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA259&lpg=PA259&dq=Robert+FitzPayne+grey&source=bl&ots=6z8MDLTV-p&sig=i3-Fa-HARPq6PwbuTvFHIjbpkB8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjX3c3t0uHeAhUEMo8KHcuRD_4Q6AEwD3oECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=Robert%20FitzPayne%20grey&f=false
 * https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%90%D0%B3%D1%83_%D0%B4%D0%B5_%D0%91%D0%BE (Agout des Baux)
 * Arnaud I de Duèze, Viscount Carmain (check name)
 * Bertrand I of L'Isle-Jourdain (expand)
 * Raymond de Jourdain
 * Guillaume II Amanieu de Geneva, Archbishop of Bordeaux between 1207 and 13 September 1227, Seneschal of Gascony 1217-1218.

The Comte de Lisle was taken prisoner, and with him Aymar de Poitiers, Viscount de Caraman (Arnaud d'Euze), Agout des Baux, Seneschal of Toulouse, Raymond de Jourdain, and Viscount de Lautrec. Poitters Louis, count of Valentinois, and Henry de Montigny, Seneschal of Queroy, remained among the dead. http://www.histoirepassion.eu/?1345-1355-Campagnes-des-Anglais-dans-les-provinces-de-l-Ouest

Jean I Harpedane
was a English soldier His father or grandfather was William Harpedene. Died in 1389 in England. Arms of Harpedane, English lords, in 1312: Argent, a mullet pierced of six points gules. Coat of arms of Harpedane, lord of Montaigu and Belleville: Gyronny of twelve, gules and vair. There is little information on the life of Jean I er Harpedane, like those of his descendants and, more so, of his ancestors. It is best known to us by fleeting quotes from chroniclers of the time and at random from various legal archives (royal acts, minutes of trial, wills, matrimonial acts). Moreover, for the years 1380 to 1406, nobiliary dictionaries and genealogical works often confuse what concerns him with his son John II.

Harpedane are native to England. A village ( Harpenden ) located a few dozen kilometers north of London bears their name which could be of Scandinavian origin: the suffix " dan " can come from " danish ". At the very end of the XIII th century, a Guillaume ( William ) of Harpedene is in the records of the London Parliament 1, and later as Grand Bailiff ( High Sheriff ) Essex County. In 1312, his coat of arms (" Argent a wheel Gules ") is among the coat of arms 2 of the thirty-six bannerets (lords whose number of vassals was sufficient to constitute a "Banner ", unit of combat in a troop of the time) of the county near Berks ( Berk-shire ) He is either the father or the grandfather of Jean ( John ) Harpedane and his brother Thomelin.

Born around 1330, Jean I er Harpedane married in 1361 to Jeanne de Clisson, daughter Jeanne de Belleville, which made him the lord of Montaigu when his wife found the family possessions seized in 1343 by Philip VI of Valois. He had a son, the future John II Harpedane. Becoming a widower, he remarried before 1372 with Catherine Le Sénéchal Mortemer. It is through the remarriage of it in June 1390, we know that in early summer 1389 Jean Harpedane left Bordeaux and died soon after in England 3.

From 1361 to 1517, the Harpedane in the genealogy of the lords, then barons, of Montaigu (since before 1462, they were called Belleville rather than Harpedane)

For much of his life he fought alongside Jean Chandos whose role was decisive in the English successes of the Hundred Years War. He participated in particular in the " ride " of the Black Prince of 1355, then in that of 1356 which led the latter to defeat and capture the King of France John II the Good at Poitiers. In 1360, the Treaty of Bretigny went to Edward III territories that their ancestors, the dukes of Aquitaine, had to abandon a century and a half ago, and the 1 st October 1361, Jean Harpedane became for him lord and governor of Fontenay the Comte then later, at the same time seneschal of Saintonge where he had received a certain number of fiefs.

When he became king in 1364, Charles V tried to rally the feudal lords to him; so around 1370, Olivier V de Clisson, brother-in-law of Jean Harpedane, left the camp of the duke of Brittany Jean IV de Montfort to join that of the king of France. From 1369, taking advantage of the financial difficulties of the Black Prince, Charles V practiced a clever politics of reconquest 4 made of negotiations, skirmishes, truces, seats of small towns and castles ... After the Rouergue, Quercy, the Armagnac, Périgord and Limousin, it extended to Poitou and Saintonge whose lords had mostly rallied to Edward III. For Jean Harpedane, it was a period of constant fighting and displacement.

1372 was a particularly dark year for him. Seneschal of Saintonge and warrior of his suzerain Edward III, it was in June of that year in La Rochelle which was invested by the constable Bertrand Du Guesclin. An English fleet, commanded by John de Hastings, Count of Pembroke, was sent to his aid, while a Castilian fleet, allied to the King of France, arrived in front of the town. Jean Harpedane went to his reinforcements, without succeeding in obtaining the support of the Rochelais who wished to limit themselves to keeping the city. Taking advantage of the play of tides, shoals and weaker drafts of their boats, the Spaniards destroyed the enemy fleet and made numerous and illustrious prisoners they sent to Spain 5. Jean Harpedane was part of the number, and it will come back at the beginning of the year 1375.

La Rochelle having surrendered on the 23rd of August, 1372, Du Guesclin advanced before Fontenay, which, according to Froissart, was valiantly defended by Catherine the Seneschal. But that can not hope to be rescued, the city and its castle surrendered on 9 and 10 October 6, getting their supporters to retreat with their weapons on Thouars where they held all the knights of Poitou serving the King of England 7.

Returning from captivity Jean Harpedane, with his wife, retired to England where he possessed in Raine in Devon a manor of which one has no traces. At that time, all his possessions on the mainland, in Poitou, Saintonge and elsewhere, had been confiscated by the king of France, including his first wife was found in 1360. The 1 st March 1384 or 1385, he came in Bordeaux following his appointment as Seneschal of Gascony, a function that made him the direct representative of the King of England in his duchy of Guyenne, and which was considered the culmination of a career 8. He was led to support his uncle, John of Ghent, Duke of Lancaster, in his royal ambitions in Spain. He exercised this high and heavy judicial, political and military function until June 25, 1389, that is to say until only a few weeks before the presumed date of his death.

By his marriages, for his possessions and, like most English nobles of that time, its culture, Jean I er Harpedane although born in England was a predominantly French life. However, his loyalty throughout his life to his overlords Edward III and Richard II was remarkably consistent at a time when allegiances were very changeable. Also, one can wonder about what were his relations with his son, the future Jean II Harpedane, who very soon followed his maternal uncle Olivier V de Clisson in his rally to the Valois. Finally, Jean I erHarpedane, if only for a short time, stayed at Montaigu, of which he could not really be in possession of the fact of his wife at best, from 1361 to 1372, seems very uncertain.

Sources and references

1 The Parliamentary Writs and Writs of Millitary Summons, eds. 1827, vol. 1, p. 345.

2 The " Role of the Parliament " or " Role of the Bannerets ", lists the names and coat of arms of the 1110 main English vassals of the King of England around 1312. It is composed of 19 vellum sheets, measuring 15.25 x 21 cm. ( The Great, Parliamentary, or Bannerets 'Roll, British Museum' s manuscript collection: MS Cotton, Caligula A. XVIII, ff 3-21b, blazon No. 342).

3 Royal Acts of Poitou, t. 5 (1377-1390), DCLXI (February 1383), p. 203, note (numbered book of the National School of Charters).

4 See the Great Chronicles of France, t.5, of John (II) the Good to Charles (V) the Sage (1350/1380).

5 Froissart (John), Chronicles, chap. DCLIX et seq.

6 In 1890, Jean de Martrin-Donos published a historical melodrama in 3 acts and 7 paintings, entitled Jehan de Harpedanne or the taking of Fontenay by Guesclin on October 9, 1372, music of Paul Grouanne (Arch de la Vendée) : BIB A 27/7).

7 Froissart (John), Chronicles.

8 Bériac-Lainé (Francoise) and Challet (Philippe), " the Sénéchaux of Biscay: the men of war (1248-1453)? ", In: Proceedings of the Congress of the League of medieval historians of higher education, 29 th Congress, Pau, 1998, p. 207-227.

Jean II
John II Harpedane in Fontenay-le-Comte (Vendée, France) christened in Notre-Dame church filiations John I Harpedane, degree: Father Jeanne de Clisson, degree: Mother She herself, daughter of Olivier IV of Clisson and Jeanne de Belleville, and sister of the constable Olivier V de Clisson. Death July 09, 1434 Jean II Harpedane was born around 1363 to the marriage of Jean 1 st Harpedane and Jeanne de Clisson and was probably their only child. He must have only 7 years old when his mother died and his father remarried, significantly before 1372, with the very young Catherine Le Senechal Mortemer 1. From his childhood, he was entrusted to his maternal uncle, Olivier V de Clisson, who took care of his education and exerted an influence over him which, in all fields, was substituted for that which his father could have had. He married Jeanne d'Apremont, then Jeanne (Jovine) of Mussidan; from this last marriage he had two sons, the future John III Harpedaneand Olivier, and two daughters, Jeanne and Marguerite. On June 13, 1334 he made his will, and he died on the 9th or 10th of July following.

From 1361 to 1517, the Harpedane in the genealogy of the lords, then barons, of Montaigu (since before 1462, they were called Belleville rather than Harpedane)

John II Harpedane was always at the service of the Valois, while his father, John 1 st Harpedane, remained faithful all his life to the Plantagenets. He followed his maternal uncle, Olivier de Clisson, who around 1370 passed from the camp of the Duke Jean IV of Brittany to an allegiance to the King of France. From 1383, this change of allegiance was worth John II to inherit the property of his uncle Thomelin Harpedane, sequestered because of his membership of the party of the King of England. By the same act, the king attributed to him the ownership of property owned by his father who were also confiscated for the same reasons, an award made then that date Jean I er Harpedane were alive 2. Throughout these 1380s, he followed his uncle Olivier de Clisson who had just received the title of " constable of France " shortly after the advent of Charles VI and the death of Du Guesclin. It is found with him in Arras, 1 st December 1386, the army was destined to invade England. In 1388, he is mentioned as chamberlain of Charles VI, and lives in the entourage of the king ... He is also quoted several times by the chronicler Froissart according to which he took part in the expedition of the duke of Bourbon in 1390 in the States Barbary and witnessed the abortive siege of Mahdia on the Tunisian coast 3.

Between 1391 and 1396, he was seneschal of Saintonge where he received from the king the city and the seigniory of Montendre 4. During the years 1395 and 1396, he fought in Guyenne under Enguerrand de Coucy. He was found between 1396 and 1399 as seneschal of Périgord, then again as seneschal of Saintonge until 1407. It was under his authority that, on May 19, 1402, took place the famous fight of Montendre opposing seven French knights to seven knights English 5.

After the death of the Constable de Clisson, in 1407, we share the succession of Olivier IV and Jeanne de Belleville, between on the one hand the two daughters of Olivier V, Beatrix de Clisson and Marguerite de Clisson, and on the other hand Jean II Harpedane his nephew, son of Jeanne de Clisson, who received the lands of Belleville, Montaigu, Vendrennes and the Lande 6. The effective possession of the castle of Montaigu by John II Harpedane began with hateful relations between him and the inhabitants of the city. Several lawsuits bear witness to this. The longest and most significant, that of March 19, 1411 7, brings more information on the population of Montaigu of then, thanks to which one can estimate that the city counted in 1500 inhabitants with its suburbs (that is to say the same order that it will count in 1789 ):

Extract from the records of the trial of March 19, 1411, between Jean Harpedane and the inhabitants of Montaigu.

John Harpedenne, wishing to compel the inhabitants of his Chatellenie de Montaigu to watch and guard, first asked his vassals to execute his orders, but they "rendered that they could not compel their men and subjects to to make the said watch ". In front of their incapacity, he had recourse to servants "strange earth", which increased still the fury of the inhabitants. With the obstinate refusal of his subjects, Harpedenne then opposed the force: the goods were confiscated, the chore to the castle was imposed. The inhabitants appealed to the King and obtained in 1408 that a "safeguard was meant and published with the said Montagu". The conflict redoubled violence because Jean Harpedenne also obtained royal letters authorizing him to command the lookout. Before the irruption of the servants of Harpedenne in their home, the inhabitants reported the royal safeguard and their appeal. Low argument because the servants went to the acts saying that they "have the fleur-de-lis in parte posteriori dorsi and that they would do nothing for the Roy nor for call". On the contrary, one of them "had gone through the city and had published that Harpedenne had commanded him to kill until XXV those who prevented the watch ... and said to them: Villains you will do watch or I will cut your heads. " And, continuing their sackings and insults to the fleur-de-lis, the men of Harpedenne drove the huis with an ax "which they called head of Roy and as the good people said they were in the safeguard of Roy, they replied that8.

During this new part of his life, John II Harpedane divides himself between his many possessions (he added on October 10, 1415 the seigneuries of Cosnac and Mirambeau in Saintonge, in 1418 those of Saint-Hilaire-le-Vouhis and Mareuil, then others ...) and the entourage of Charles VI († 1422), of which he was once again a chamberlain. This is a time when we see involved in a considerable number of trial 9without knowing whether it is due to reflexes inherited from his seneschal past, to the habits and disorders of the time, or to a difficult character. Among these lawsuits, the one he upheld against Jean Larchevêque, lord of Parthenay, begun in 1420 was still not finished in 1432. In 1418, another lawsuit opposed La Trémoille, in 1428 it was against Gilles de Rais in 1429 against Leonard Thevenin ... That same year 1429, in a trial of July 14 and August 16, we learn that a serious dispute between Maurice de Volvire and then Nicolas Volvire, his brother and heir, lords Rocheservière and Ruffec had even taken on the appearance of a real private war: the partisans of Volvire having besieged Montaigu and the Château de Vendrennes 10. Violence that seems shared and common at the time: in 1420 Jean II Harpedane was arrested and imprisoned in the castle of Parthenay by his opponent; in 1430, in another trial it is Jean Harpedane who threatens to prison the witnesses of his adversary in order to prevent that they appear in court ...

Its neighborhood agreements with the Duke of Brittany give an idea of ​​the importance and degree of political independence that lords such as those of Montaigu had at the beginning of the fifteenth century. Thus, in 1420, he delivered letters of abstinence to John V, followed two years later by a promise to observe a truce of 3 years , then in 1433 a promise to enter into no alliance whatsoever contrary.

Seal of John Harpedanne, at the bottom of the "Letters of abstinence of war" delivered on November 6, 1420 to the Duke Jean V of Brittany (Arch of Loire-Atlantique).

At least during the last years of his life, his relations with his youngest son Olivier were particularly stormy, to the point that he disinherited him in his will. This is because Olivier says he feels less well treated than his brother, who in 1428 on the occasion of his marriage had received a part of the patrimonial goods, behaved like an unworthy son. " Accompanying himself to no roads " he would have looted, imprisoned and ransomed several inhabitants of the paternal lordship of Nuaillé in Saintonge, would have allied himself to the Chabot at war against Jean Harpedane and, come for reconciliation to Montaigu, would be left in having seized dishes and horses ... His relations were better with his eldest son, the future Jean III Harpedane. After 1434, the latter claimed, on the faith of the will left by the deceased, recover almost all of the family inheritance. His brothers, sisters and mother accused him of manipulating their father and husband for his exclusive benefit. There followed a series of lawsuits ... thanks to which it was possible to deduce that it was on July 9th or 10th, 1434 that John II Harpedane died.

Sources and references

1 National Archives, JJ. 139, No. 96, No. 113: " being in the age of about twelve or thirteen, had been conjoined by marriage by his parents and friends, and by the advice and consent of Ragond Bechete, his mother, with Jehan Harpedanne . "

2 National Archives, JJ. 122, No. 95, No. 49.

3 Froissart, Chronicles.

4 National Archives, JJ. 140, No. 293, No. 342 and JJ. 153, No. 77, No. 37.

5 Jouvenel des Ursins (John), History of Charles VI - 1380/1422.

6 Collection of Dom Fonteneau, t. XXVI, p. 335.

7 National Archives, X 2A 16, f ° 24, f ° 139-140; X 2A 17, fd 10-17 v °; X 1A 4792, f 82.

8 Gauvard (Claude), "Public opinion on the borders of states and principalities in the early XV th century" Acts of Congress of the League of medieval historians of public higher education, 1973, vol. 4, No. 1, p. 127-152.

9 The most important of these lawsuits are found in the National Archives in the registers of acts and judgments of the Paris Parliament; for those mentioned: X 1a 9200, f ° 36, 42, 147v °; X 1a 4792, f 59V °, 61; X 1a 9191, f ° 95; X 1a 9191, f 154; X 2a 18, fd 164, 172; X 1a 9201, f ° 46.

10 A serious dispute that did not, however, prevent the marriage, before 1434, of Joachim (1405-?), Son of Nicolas de Volvire, with Marguerite (1415-?), Daughter of John II Harpedan

Jean III
http://www.vendeens-archives.vendee.fr/personnalite-jean-iii-harpedane-23095 Birth 1408 filiations John II Harpedane, degree: Father Jeanne de Mussidan, degree: Mother Death the 1462 Montaigu (Vendée, France)

John III Harpedane was born in 1408. He was the son of John II Harpedane and his second wife, Jeanne de Mussidan. In May 1428, he married Marguerite de Valois (1407-av.1458), natural daughter of Charles VI and Odette de Champdivers, legitimated in January of the same year by his half-brother King Charles VII. They had at least four sons: Louis, Gilles, Jacques, Antoine; and a girl: Marie. When he became a widower, he remarried in 1458 with Jeanne de Blois, known as Jeanne de Bretagne, as a descendant of Duke Jean III by the Penthièvre branch. He died after June 1462. From John III, the surname Harpedane was more and more neglected in favor of that of Belleville.

From 1361 to 1517, the Harpedane in the genealogy of the lords, then barons, of Montaigu (since before 1462, they were called Belleville rather than Harpedane)

John III Harpedane spent his early years alongside his father, in the entourage of King Charles VI, then his son Charles the Dauphin, future Charles VII, of which he was one of the chamberlains. At their wedding, Marguerite de Valois brought her a dowry of 20,000 sheep 1, a gift from her half-brother. The half was given to the father of the groom so that he used it in purchases of land and inheritance in the name of his daughter-in-law. As for this one, she was attached to the person of the queen and was known at court as " Mademoiselle de Belleville ". Jean III Harpedane was most likely in Chinon when Joan of Arc arrived there on February 23, 1429. His name is quoted by some chroniclers among those who participated alongside him in the rescue of Orleans in May following 2.

The central part of the castle of Chinon, as it was in 1428: Coudray tower, inner moat, middle castle or home of the king, after Albert Laprade, 1959 ( length of the foreground: 165 m ).

On October 7, 1433, a royal act of Charles VII had ratified the rule that John II Harpedane, lord of Belleville, was preparing to make his estate for the benefit of his eldest son the future John III, married with his half-sister, Marguerite de Valois. After the death of John II Harpedane in July 1434, his son John III tended to apply strictly the will that had been written on June 13, of which he was the only beneficiary. In this testament John II bequeathed to Jeanne de Mussidan, his widow, a life annuity of 2000 pounds which was not paid to him. In its application it had to bring against his eldest son a trial, in which it asked for more as dowry half of accrued gains made during his marriage, which took place during the 1435 years before the Parliament sitting in Poitiers 3. This affair ended with an amicable agreement, on November 24th or December 2nd of the same year. On the other hand, John II Harpedane had disinherited in his will his youngest son, Olivier. What the latter contested although his brother had left him the land and the manor of Saint-Hilaire-le-Vouhis, " an alms ". The opposition between Jean and Olivier Harpedanegave rise to another trial which ended only on 4 August 1436 4. Olivier claimed that the malfeasance of all kinds that had motivated his disinheritance had been fabricated accusations by his brother who wanted to appropriate the entire paternal succession. Jean rejected this thesis in its entirety, claiming that, on the contrary, he had done everything to reconcile his brother with their father. The Parliament finally to agree with the cadet. The majority of the succession, however, always returned to the elder, with in particular the seigneuries of Montaigu and Belleville, but Olivier received a fair share of the inheritance with, among other possessions, the seigniory of Mirambeau which he took the title. One of Jean III's sisters, Jeanne, was a minor and not yet married when their father died. Considering himself the new head of the family, John III promised it to Galois de Villiers, against the advice of his brother and his mother who seized the Parliament to remove it from his authority. After that, the Parliament took a series contradictory decisions and finally asked his opinion to the complainant, who married later and always against the advice of her mother, The Galois Villiers 5.

On December 23, 1438, John III Harpedane founded a collegiate that he established in the chapel of his castle Montaigu. He gave him the name of " Sainint-Maurice, " which had been worn by several of his ancestors, former lords of the place. It was from now on to one of his canons that fell the responsibility of the school of the city. By this creation, John III imitated his neighbor Olivier de Clisson who, a few decades earlier in 1407, had founded a collegiate church in the Notre-Dame church of his city. Ten years later, he joined Rene, Duke of Anjou and " King of Sicily and Jerusalem ", when he wanted to rebuild the Order of the Crescent 6. By taking again the name of the one created in 1268 in Messina by Charles of Anjou, he gave himself an antiquity that did not possess the other orders of the time. It was placed under the patronage of Saint Maurice who was also that of the cathedral of Angers where it was founded. He received all the attributes that any order of chivalry had to have, including a motto, " loz en croissant ", that is to say: " by advancing in virtues, we deserve praise ".

Blazon of "Jehan of Belleville and Montaigu", in the "Statutes of the Order of the Crescent" in 1448, and, in Angers, the so-called "Crescent" house which has the reputation of having served as a meeting place for knights of the Order during the twelve years of his brief existence.

The series of lawsuits which opposed him from 1434 to 1436 to the rest of his family, another begun in 1430 and still not finished in 1457, 7 and many others, show that Jean III Harpedane had inherited at least part of the spirit proceedings of his father John II. On February 28, 1447, was pleaded before the Parliament of Paris a criminal case opposing Jean III Harpedane to Nicolas Queyré, his seneschal to Montaigu, significant by what it shows of the character of Jean III and a propensity to use the force to impose his will.

the case Nicolas Queyré 8

Nicolas Queyré calls himself a nobleman, a cleric, dismissed from laws 9, having long practiced in Poitou, married to Montaigu where he has always exercised his office for the benefit of the lord and the inhabitants. Often he had made money loans to the said lord of Belleville. The latter had to go to Bourges for a trial against the bishop of Luzon, "because of four good cures he wanted to unite to his chapel Montaigu" 10, he still wanted to borrow from his seneschal a large sum. Queyre refused and was imprisoned and released by a request from his wife. But Jean de Belleville having lost his case, he accused the seneschal of being the cause, on the argument that his brother was vicar of the bishop of Luçon, and he swore that he would take revenge and make him pay all the costs which amounted to 500 ECUs. On January 9, 1446, he had two of his men, named Fredaine and Hurtebise, "who are banished people" equipped and ambushed "at the Porte Jaillet de Montaigu", and at the moment when Nicolas Queyré entered the city, They seized him and took him to prison. The friends of Nicolas Queyre require Jean Macaire, then seneschal of Belleville, to have his colleague released, since there was no information against him. The latter dared not do anything without referring to Jean de Belleville, his lord, who declared that his prisoner would not be delivered until he had paid the 500 crowns. The affair having been brought to Poitiers, Jean Chèvredent, procureur du roi in Poitou, was sent to Montaigu to execute an order of the seneschal of Poitou who ordered him to be handed over to the prisoner. Jean de Belleville closed the gates of the city and said "that he could handle in the river telz ribaulx who brought such letters". In February 1447, before the court of parliament in Paris, the lawyer Nicolas Queyré concluded with a request for referral to the seneschal of Poitou. For his part, Jean de Belleville replied that Queyre had committed, in the exercise of his office of seneschal, a lot of abuse and abuse of power, sufficiently motivating his imprisonment; his lawyer giving a detailed account of these offenses. The king's attorney in Parliament added that the lord of Belleville, Jean III Harpedane, had appointed Queyre his seneschal to Montague for a large sum of money, and that the latter fell under the "law against the peculiar", c on the embezzlement of public funds. Following these arguments, the court decided on 28 February 1447 that it would examine the information and judge if it was appropriate to refer the case to the seneschal of Poitou ... This was undoubtedly done, because we do not find any trace of this case later in the Parliament of Paris.

When shortly after June 1462 Jean III Harpedane died, his seigneurie de Montaigu passed to his eldest son, Louis. Eleven years later, after amicable agreement, King Louis XI of France took possession of the castle and the city, as part of its anti-Breton policy. In 1491, the initial situation was restored, but in 1517 John IV of Belleville-Harpedane, grandson of John III, sold the " barony of Montaigu " to La Trémoille. This put an end to the ties that the original seigniorial family had with its subjects. Links which, for at least two centuries and six generations, the accidents of history had rendered increasingly tenuous.

Six centuries later, Jean III Harpedane has a very good image in Montaigu. It is due to the local scholar XIX th century, Charles-Dugast Matifeux, who was attracted to the fact that he could marry Marguerite de Valois 11 , a half-sister of the King of France, and impressed by his involvement in education at Montaigu through the founding of the collegiate Saint-Maurice. He could also add that Jean III Harpedane had remarried again with a possible contender to the duchy of Brittany, and that he was a co-founder of the Order of the Crescent ... An image whose excellence would be at least to relativize in view of the testimonies left on him by his contemporaries.

Sources and references

1 The " golden sheep ", or " golden agals ", were coins bearing their name from the paschal lamb adorning one of their faces, and whose good name came from the fact that their origin was attributed to the holy king Louis, therefore, before the manipulation and currency depreciations subsequently operated by Philip IV the Fair and, even more so, by his successors Valois.

2 Colrat (Jean-Claude), the Companions-in-arms of Jehanne la Pucelle and the Siege of Orleans, 1997, Volume 2.

3 National Archives, X 1a 9194, f ° 102, 108, 115; X 1a 9193, f ° 106; X 1a 9200, 359 f, 370; X 1a 8604, f ° 21.

4 National Archives, X 1a 9200, f 380; X 1a 9194, f 122 and 144 f; X 1a 9193, f ° 106v ° and 159 bis.

5 National Archives, X 1a 9194, f ° 121 v, 125 and 126.

6 Statutes of the Order of the Crescent, 1448, p. 98 (BnF, Departure of manuscripts, 25204), with the coat of arms of 32 of the first members of the Order.

7 National Archives, X 2a  9201, f ° 46; X 2a  18, f ° 201; X 2a, mp 135 °; X 2a 28 to 08/02, 15/02 and 07/04 1457.

8 National Archives, X 2a  24, to February 27 and 28, 1447.

9 "Master" Nicolas Queyré, was married to Jovine (Jeanne) La Bretonne and lived in Montaigu (probably the current " pottery court ", in the " Faubourg Saint-Jacques "), where he held the office of seneschal seigneurial. He had a brother, Jean, who was a priest and who died in 1465 in Bois-de-Cené where he was pastor / rector, and three sisters, Marguerite, Perrote and Denise who all had a posterity, unlike him. The Queyré owned property in Mareuil sector, especially on the stronghold of Bessay Salidieu acquired there seems little after 1413 and where one can still see the remains of the XV th century their " house"Jean Queyré had a chapel built in 1464. The house of Nicolas Queyré Montaigu (current" courtyard of the Pottery "), returned to 1490 Aléanore, his little niece by his sister Marguerite, and her husband Louis Prévost then to their descendants, until it was sold as National Property in 1796.

10 The chapel of the castle of Montaigu, inferred from the former lords of the place, where John III Harpedane had founded and established his " collegiate Saint-Maurice " in 1438.

11 See the article on Marguerite de Valois in Charles Dugast-Matifeux's review,  Échos du Bocage, (1884-1890).

Heraldry

 * Henry de Turberville - Gules, on chief sable, a demi-lion queue fourchy or and Azure, a leopard and a sexfoil in chief and a sexfoil in base, or.
 * Hugh de Turberville - Argent, a lion gules.
 * Drew de Barentin - Sable, three eagles argent.
 * William de Boeles
 * Vaux of Catterlen: - Or, a fess chequy or and gules, between three garbs of the last.

=Scotland articles=
 * https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirleton_Castle

=Lancaster 1346=

Chevauchée
On 4 September 1346 the leaders of the Anglo-Gascon army gathered in the castle of La Réole to plan their next move. In view of the absence of organized resistance they decided to divide their forces into three. The ‘Archdeacon’, Gaillard de Durfort, and the lords of the Agenais were left to hold their own province and conduct raids in the territory east of it. Most of the rest of the Gascon retinues were placed under the command of Bérard and Bernard-Aiz of Albret and sent to complete the reconquest of the Bazadais, south of the Garonne. Lancaster himself, who was more interested in political impact than creeping reconquest, proposed to launch a long-distance raid to the north. On 12 September 1346 he marched out of La Réole with 1,000 men-at-arms and an uncertain number of mounted infantry. About half the men-at-arms and most of the infantry were probably Gascons. Their morale was high. The Gascons had agreed to serve without pay for a month, a sign of the profit they expected to make from ransoms and booty under a much admired commander.

Lancaster’s object was to recover the province of Saintonge and the northern approaches to Bordeaux. His method of doing it was characteristically bold. He proposed to strike hard, well north of the disputed region, cutting it off from reinforcement, demoralizing its defenders until they were ready to surrender without serious resistance. Loot may have been the reason why he chose Poitiers, one of the most opulent cities of central France, as his main target.

The Anglo-Gascons marched for eight days without pause from the Garonne to the Charente. On 20 September they arrived at Châteauneuf, within 10 miles of Angoulême. Here the Earl paused to repair the bridge, which the inhabitants had broken on his approach, and was diverted from his purpose by an escapade of Walter Mauny’s, not the first nor the last time that this reckless soldier’s adventures complicated the course of the war. Mauny had obtained from the Duke of Normandy a safe conduct for himself and twenty companions to cross France and join Edward III’s army in the north. He had in effect bought it by remitting the ransom of one of the Duke’s friends whom he had captured in a skirmish outside Aiguillon. It was one of those unorthodox transactions at the margin of public and private affairs which were so characteristic of the fourteenth century. Not everyone was willing to take the document at its face value. As Mauny’s party travelled up the Bordeaux-Paris road, they were captured by a party of French soldiers and taken into the town of Saint-Jean-d’Angély, where they were thrown into prison. Mauny himself succeeded in escaping with two friends, but the rest of the party were still languishing there when the news of their plight was brought to the Earl of Lancaster. Saint-Jean-d’Angély was about 40 miles north-west of Châteauneuf across the flat plains of Aunis, then one of the richest wine-producing regions of France. It was a small walled town, an important local market and river port lying under the shadow of a Benedictine abbey whose relics, including a head of St John the Baptist, made it one of the great staging posts on the pilgrimage roads to Santiago de Compostela. The walls and barbicans, which were reported a decade later to be broken and crumbling in many places, were probably in even worse condition in 1346. When the English arrived without warning on 22 September 1346 the town fell at the first assault. It was violently sacked. The abbey and most of the warehouses and mansions of the merchants were stripped bare. Those who were spared were subjected to heavy ransoms and indemnities by Lancaster’s orders, and made to take oaths of loyalty to their new sovereign. Those who objected were imprisoned and those who fled found their property confiscated after they had gone. But there were not many who fled. The men of Saint-Jean-d’Angély were stunned by the blow which had fallen on them. Most of them kept their objections to themselves and salved something of their world. In Lancaster’s phrase they ‘turned English’.13

On 30 September Lancaster’s army, its strength somewhat reduced by garrison troops needed to hold Saint-Jean-d’Angély, resumed its march at high speed, covering about 20 miles a day. On 2 or 3 October 1346 they stormed the little town of Lusignan a short distance south-west of Poitiers. The resistance of the townsmen was half-hearted. The castle, although it was powerfully constructed and filled with the gentry of the region, who had taken refuge there with their families, offered no resistance at all. The defenders sent out the emissaries to meet the English with the keys. The men of Lusignan, like those of Saint-Jean-d’Angély, reconciled themselves soon enough to the government of King Edward’s agents, returning over the following weeks to find the ruins of their homes and buy back their possesions from the soldiers who had pillaged them.14

Lusignan fared better than Poitiers. The churches of this great ecclesiastical city were filled with treasures, not only their own but those of many monasteries of the surrounding region whose communities had loaded up their carts and joined the mass of refugees washing into the city as the news of Derby’s movements spread. But in spite of its impressive situation at the top of a semicircle of cliffs over the confluence of two rivers, Poitiers was weak. Parts of it were unwalled, the approaches defended only by earthworks and trenches. Where there were walls, they were old and in places ruinous.15 A garrison had had to be improvised at short notice from the tenants and retainers of some local noblemen.

Lancaster’s men arrived outside the city on the evening of 3 October. They launched an immediate assault, which failed. But on the following morning they found a weak point in the defences by the church of St Radegonde in the eastern part of the city, where the rampart had been pierced long ago to allow access to a water mill. The English seized the breach and poured into the town, lighting fires and striking down anyone in their way. There was a terrible massacre. Everyone who could ran to the opposite end of the city with all that they could carry, cramming themselves into the congested streets and fleeing through the gates into the fields outside. Those who fled included the Bishop and four of the five noblemen responsible for the defence of the town. When the initial lust fordestruction had died down the English and Gascon soldiers spread through the streets breaking open churches and other buildings and collecting enough booty to fill every cart they could lay hands on: ‘sacred vessels, copes, chalices, crucifixes, everything of gold or silver’, the cathedral chapter declared when they came to count their losses. The monks of Charroux lost the whole contents of their treasury and much of their muniments, which they had brought into the city for safety. About 600 people died, most of them labourers and petty tradesmen. Men of consequence were spared when they were recognized, but they were ruined by the extortionate ransoms which their captors demanded. And when they returned home, in some cases many months later, it was often to find their houses and furniture burned and their farms occupied by destitute and savage squatters.16

It is not difficult to understand why a city like Poitiers should have been so unprepared for this calamity. Although rich and populous it had been a political backwater since the beginning of the thirteenth century. It was more than 100 miles from Bordeaux. The war was now in its tenth year but the lines of battle had ebbed and flowed far away. The municipality was weak and without any real tax-raising powers of its own. Jurisdiction over its defences was uncertainly divided between the city magistrates and three ecclesiastical proprietors. There was nothing unusual about any of this. The breach by which the English entered Saint-Jean-d’Angély was there because of a long-standing quarrel among the citizens about who was to pay to fill it. The same problems were common to most walled towns of France. The surrounding region was as ill prepared as the provincial capital. At the outset of the war, a decade earlier, there had been a survey of royal castles in Poitou, but there is no evidence that it was followed by any significant repairs. During September 1346 Philip VI had sent hurried instructions to the Seneschal of Poitou to repair the walls of three towns of western Poitou, Niort, Saint-Maixent and Fontenay-le-Comte, to serve as refuges for the local population. But it was very late in the day. His letters must have arrived at about the same time as the Earl of Lancaster did.17

Some years afterwards the craven terror and helplessness of small provincial towns in the path of the English armies was graphically described in the evidence given for the prosecution at a treason trial in Paris. The accused was the Bishop of Maillezais, which was a minor market town at the edge of the marais Poitevin north-east of La Rochelle. Maillezais had no garrison and poor walls, but it was some way from Lancaster’s line of march and was reasonably well protected by rivers and marshes. When the first reports of the English campaigns reached the town, the citizens and the monks of the Benedictine abbey began weapon training. They organized themselves in watches, working shifts day and night. But in October the mood changed. The Bishop called the monks before him in the cloister. He described the fate of Saint-Jean-d’Angély and Poitiers. He told them that their town was much weaker than either of those places and that it was folly to defend it against impossible odds. Besides, he said, was not God evidently performing miracles for the English? Was He not showing them plainly that Edward III was their lawful king? Had their own church not been founded by Edward’s ancestors? Did they not owe the English King their loyalty? Rather than fight a useless battle at the walls and expose themselves to the revenge of the conquerors, they should meet Lancaster’s troops in procession on the road, wearing their finest vestments and carrying the keys of the town. The Bishop then called the citizens before him and made a similar speech to them. He suggested that they should raise funds to buy a suitable gift for the Earl of Lancaster and promised that he would personally make the largest contribution. There were people in Maillezais who had been saying for some time that Edward III would be a better master than Philip VI. Two of these were sent to find the Earl of Lancaster. They presented him with a goshawk and two greyhounds and invited him to come to Maillezais, where he would be received, they said, with honour and joy. Lancaster promised to come and gave them badges bearing his insignia to attach to their clothes. The town began to prepare their welcome. They made banners with the arms of Plantagenet and Lancaster to display at the gates. They laid gold cloth over the tomb of an eleventh-century Duke of Aquitaine in the abbey and surrounded it with lighted candles. In their own evidence the monks and townsmen claimed that they had rejected the Bishop’s advice with indignation and had refused to have anything to do with his plan. But there is some doubt about this. The truth seems to be that they supported him, tacitly at least, until the crisis had passed, when they fell to venomous and self-serving recrimination. The Bishop was acquitted. What is interesting is that his defence (which was presumably accepted) stopped a long way short of complete denial. The facts, he said, had been exaggerated by his enemies. But he did not dispute that he had been in favour of treating with the English. His point was that nobody should be blamed for that in the conditions of autumn 1346. He pointed out that there had been virtually no organized bodies of French troops in Poitou when Henry of Lancaster invaded it. There had been no warning of his coming. There were not enough weapons with which to arm the population. The walls of the towns, including Maillezais, were incapable of resisting any determined assault. Other towns and castles of the region had made their peace with the English on whatever terms they could get. What else could they do?18

When the English withdrew from Poitiers, on about 12 October 1346, they marched towards Saintonge and Bordeaux, looting, smashing and burning as they went. Resistance was patchy and uncoordinated. Some places, like Maillezais, Melle and Vivonne, officiously thrust their surrenders on the retreating commander. A few resisted ferociously, like the workers of the royal mint at Montreuil-Bonnin just west of Poitiers, many of whom lost their lives on the walls when the place was assaulted. Niort and Saint-Maixent, two of the refuges appointed in September, beat off all the Earl’s attacks and survived.19

Lancaster made no attempt to occupy Poitou. He left no garrison in the province except at Lusignan, where the castle was well sited and the town small and relatively easy to hold. A hundred men-at-arms and some infantry and archers were left here under the command of the murderous Bertrand de Montferrand and his two brothers. They turned it into a centre of organized banditry from which they terrorized much of western and central Poitou for years. Garrisons like these were not so much intended to control territory as to create chaos and insecurity, tying down many times their own numbers of the enemy. A more serious attempt at permanent occupation was made further south in Saintonge and Aunis. An enormous garrison, 200 men-at-arms and 600 infantry, was installed at Saint-Jean-d’Angély. Regular taxes were imposed on the town, much heavier than those which had previously been paid to the King of France. Gascon officials and judges were brought in to administer the surrounding region.20 During the second half of October 1346, the English expanded this distant enclave of the duchy by occupying the whole of the valley of the Boutonne from Saint-Jean-d’Angély to the sea, including the great castle and harbour of Rochefort and the island of Oléron. Lancaster himself, however, was in a hurry to return to Bordeaux and he did not have the time or the resources to conquer the whole territory between the Boutonne and the Gironde.21 Most of the country was brought more or less under the control of the Bordeaux government by seizing the more vulnerable castles and fortifying the larger farms and rural monasteries. These places received small garrisons generally under the command of sympathetic local noblemen. But the French Crown was certainly not driven out of Saintonge. The French hung on to their principal strongholds along the Bordeaux–Paris road, including Saintes, the provincial capital, and Taillebourg, dominating the crossing of the Charente north of it, one of the strongest fortresses of the region. Moreover, they kept most of their garrisons along the north shore of the Gironde, including Blaye, Talmont and Royan.22 Lancaster’s chevauchée was therefore only a qualified success.

Aftermath
The result of this stalemate was to condemn the whole province to a permanent and debilitating guerrilla war between neighbouring strongholds of either side, conditions which had already ruined Brittany and much of eastern and southern Gascony.

Edward II, king of England, after having violated the truce which he had concluded with Philippe de Valois, postponed his arms in Guienne. Count Derby, lieutenant-general of the armies of the King of England, came to besiege Bergerac. Two hundred French knights and nine counts or viscounts were killed or taken prisoner. Eymery de Durfort, badly wounded, expired the next day from the siege. (1345).

His companion was Galhard de Durfort, his son, and some other knights, such as the counts of Isle, Perigord, and Valentinois. The castle of Duras fell to the power of the English, as well as the other places of Gascony.

The Duke of Normandy, of whom we have spoken, laid siege to Aiguillon with an army of a hundred thousand men. Marmande, La Réole submitted to the English as well as Tonneins and Castelmoron, after the news of the failure experienced by the French before Aiguillon.

Galhard of Durfort, son of Eymery, was very attached to England. It was his dedication to this cause that earned him the title of Baron of Duras and the preservation of the lordship of Blanquefort. At the solicitation of Charles of Spain, Constable of France, he returned to the service of France by a treaty which was signed on May 3, 1352. King John loaded him with liberality, and gave him eleven hundred pounds a year to take on the recipe from Toulouse, until he had redeemed or reconquered the lands which the English had delighted him with.

Galhard de Durfort was one of the French knights who formed King John's retinue at the battle of Poitiers; he died on the field of battle, and had not the pain to see his king captive, and France delivered to the mercy of England; he expired beside the bishop of Chalons, dead with his helmet on his head like a valiant warrior. (1356).

Source: Historical summary on the family Durfort Duras, dedicated to the Countess of La Rochejaquelein, born Durfort Duras - Jean Favre.

Durfort
http://www.duras.free.fr/histoire.php https://gw.geneanet.org/macfouillade?lang=en&pz=guy+pierre+paul&nz=fouillade&ocz=0&p=galhard+i+dit+l+archidiacre+rang+v+mort+a+la+bataille+de+poitiers+sire+de+duras+47+blanquefort+33+villandraut+33&n=durfort+duras+de

Gaillard
[Gaillard I the Archdeacon]

Gaillard, born about 1299, took advantage very young of his filiation with Got. Thus, from 1309, he is canon of Saintes and receives from Clement V revenues on the diocese of Saintes, as well as the Benedictine priory of Montcarret. At the same time he is canon of York, with residence exemption. His profits explode in 1314 when his uncle Raymond-Bernard became bishop of Périgueux since all of the charges of the latter fell to him: canon and archdeacon of Perigueux, Aurillac, from Loire to Angers, and canon and cantor of Cahors. He also obtains various revenues from priories and churches, all while he is not yet fifteen years old. Gaillard, however, is not only a hoarder of income since he pursues brilliant studies in Toulouse. So in 1332 he is a bachelor in decree, then doctor in 1341 and teaches in Toulouse. From 1318, all of his charges appearing all the same a little exaggerated for one man, he had resigned the canonicates of Périgueux, Angers and Aurillac.

When his brother died in 1345, he followed a very brilliant ecclesiastical career, but he must be tired of it, just like teaching. Also, when the opportunity presents itself to make shine his spirit otherwise than by the right, he does not hesitate, abandons an ecclesiastical life that it hardly leads, and marries Marguerite de Caumont. Before this change of course, Gaillard did not lead a particularly tidy existence, and as early as 1323 he had scandalized Perigueux by wanting to kidnap a married woman, Armande de Coste. On the other hand, he showed early opportunism and sense of conciliation since, if in 1341-1342 he fights against the lords of Caumont and Albret for reasons a little vague, May 21 1344 he signs, during the lifetime of his brother Aymeric, an alliance for the mutual defense of their lands with the same Bertrand d'Albret, Gaillard de la Motte and Guillaume-Raymond de Caumont, and married two years later with Marguerite de Caumont. We can certainly think that Gaillard did not wait for the death of his brother to take an interest in the family patrimony, and it is certainly he who pushed his brother to insist on his inheritance.

In 1345, Gaillard is Lord of Duras, and will quickly correct the policy of his predecessor. Indeed, he finds that the majority of his lands are located in the English zone of influence, and that the recent victories won by Derby do not augur a quick victory of the Valois cause. It was then thought that the Earl of Lancaster had conquered the castle of Duras by force, but it is certainly very much appreciated that on November 26, 1345 Gaillard goes to La Réole and makes his submission to Derby, taking with him two of his brothers and many other local lords related to the lord of Duras. Of course, such a turnaround is not free, and Edward III is grateful. In addition to the recovery of Blanquefort (Gaillard is now called "Dominus Duracio and Blancofforti"), the king of England assigns him in 1348 a rent of 2000 gold crowns sitting on the bastides and places of Miramont, Castelsagrat, Molières and Beaumont where he will exercise the right of justice against a tribute to the king-duke. It is true that in 1345, when Gaillard had negotiated his passage to the English camp, the amount of his losses had been estimated at 3000 pounds a year by Derby.

Despite these benefits, Gaillard is not persuaded to have made the right choice. Also, from October 1349, makes alliance with the count of Foix (the friendship between the families of Foix and Durfort-Duras is a constant throughout the Middle Ages), then lieutenant of the king of France in Gascony. On the other hand, his relative the lord of Caumont, commissioner of the king of France charged with enforcing the truces, encouraged him to regain the French bosom with his brothers, by dangling them 26,000 gold crowns. Thus, the siblings accompanied by other characters like Bertrand de Got, sire of Puyguilhem, their cousin, supports again the Valois in 1350. The considerable sum promised is very quickly revised downwards by Charles of Spain, constable of the new king John II the Good, since in 1352 there is no longer any question of 26,000 but 14,000 crowns to help the Durfort maintain their garrisons, accompanied by 1,500 pounds annual income tournaments. At the same time, the one that we continue to call "lord of Duras and Blanquefort" was dispossessed of this last fortress. If the King of France claims that it was personal enemies to Gaillard who have stripped, and not the opponents of the King of France (it is in fact the Count of Strafford, lieutenant of the King of England, which entrusted Blanquefort to one of Gaillard's greatest opponents, Bernard-Aiz d'Albret), the fact remains that the King of England, upon the return of Gaillard by his side, will hasten to return him the fortress. Gaillard did not succeed the attempted master stroke, losing one of his two main seigniories for scattered income and a king of France bad payers. Also, after some expeditions in Agen with the Count of Armagnac in September-October 1353, he certainly contemplates with great interest the first ride of the Prince of Wales Edward Woodstock in 1355. In April 1356 he is with the Black Prince to make his submission and recover all he had lost six years earlier, starting with Blanquefort.

This third turnaround will be the last, but certainly the most important since it allows the Durfort-Duras to be on the side of the winners during the disastrous battle of Poitiers for the French armies, September 19, 1356. Gaillard disappears that same year, so it was thought that he had died in this confrontation. But H. Guilhamon has shown his survival for a few more months since he signs a treaty on November 26, 1356 and is part, with the lords of Langoiran and Albret, those who have the custody of John the Good to Bordeaux. On the other hand, he died before October 26th, 1357, since Marguerite de Caumont, lady of Duras and Blanquefort, is said to be widowed.

If he is not lord of Duras until forty-six years, we perceive what could be the influence of this intellectual-military on his elder brother, and his personal arrival at the head of the family possessions accelerated even further the growing importance of Durfort-Duras House. Not hesitating to change sides whenever reason and foresight forced him, Gaillard I left his son, still a minor, at the head of an important legacy and secured by recent victories in England.

Source: Mastery of Frédéric Vincent Second part: The lordship of Duras and his lords, 12th-15th century page 38 Chapter III: The Durfort: five centuries of radiation page 64 http://www.duras.free.fr/histoire.php ... and by the way a big blow of hat to the designers of the site of DURAS ( http://www.duras.free.fr/ )!